Hardner
Hardner is the leader of the Blue Guardians.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Page 6 He was recruited by Iulius for Demon Card's plan. His Mother Dark Bring allows him to "restore" anything, including his missing arm, ruined buildings that had long since been leveled, the atmosphere after Haru tried a smoke screen, and all his opponents old wounds which they have ever suffered and is usually fatal (although it appears he has to touch the subject). He also carries a sword with a blunted tip since he prefers to slash off heads instead of stabbing people, thus earning the nickname "Executioner". After his defeat in volume 28, Lucia comes to take his mother DB and attempts to kill him as well. He aims to merge with Endless, to forget the incident of which killed all of his comrades, wife, and unborn child, which made him and his best friend the only survivors. Unknown to him, his unborn child was alive and raised up by his best friend. Hardner also tried all means to torture his daughter to reveal the hideout of which hid an ancient staff deep underground. Realizing what he had done to his own flesh and blood, Hardner broke down in defeat as Haru spares him, only to be stabbed in the back by Lucia to retrieve the mother DB piece. It is later revealed he survived the attack. Appearance Hardner is a well-built man distinguished by his great height, which comes with very long limbs. He has an elongated, squared face with marked features and a mildly prominent nose, light eyes topped by thin eyebrows,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 206, Page 7 and a distinctive dark tattoo covering his large forehead, this taking on an almost flat "V''" shape with two small spirals near each edge; something which makes it somewhat reminiscent of a pair of wings. As the Captain of the Blue Guardians, his light-colored hair is kept in a short cut, with a single tuft located on top of his head, going from its back to the forehead, jutting upwards; in the past, Hardner's hair was shown to be noticeably longer, with wavy strands of hair topping his head and protruding in every direction. Ever since his first days in the Blue Guardians, both of his relatively large earlobes have been adorned by simple, round metal earrings.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 5-6 During his first appearances, he retained the injury gained from the ship crash which caused the death of almost every Blue Guardian from the first generation, and which cost Hardner his left forearm:Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 10-11 in its place, a large gun was present, secured to his stump. After such weapon's distruction, Hardner employed the powers of his Mother Dark Bring '''Anasthasis' to regrow his lost limb, thus having his arm restored to its original state.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 14-17 While he first appeared aboard the Albatross, Hardner also donned a simple pair of frameless glasses with square lenses; these, however, where destroyed when Belnika tried to assault him. When he was first introduced, Hardner donned a regal attire testifying his role as the leader of an organization whose power rivalled Demon Card's: he sported a light shirt with intricate, spiralling dark motifs and edges adorned by a succession of light and dark parts, paired with dark pants and footwear, with what looked like fur jutting outwards from the ankle area. Over his shirt was a light plate cuirass, which in its upper part had four belts secured by buttons, two on each side, meant to be connected to the massive, rounded dark pauldrons covering his shoulders, possessing light edges and being adorned by a series of light motifs, among which was Blue Guardians' emblem and laurel, a symbol typically related to power or glory. A dark, wide armored collar was present around Hardner's neck, sporting a series of light rhombs containing small dark circles as decorations, and hanging from his wide shoulders, covering the upper part of his pauldrons, was a long and light cape, which was secured below the Captain's neck by a clasp which bore Anasthasis. An intricately decorated ring circled his right middle finger. After disembarking from the Albatross alongside Belnika, Hardner is shown wearing a much simpler outfit: his armor is replaced by a long, light coat reaching down below his knees, possessing a high and wide collar and cuffs covered in light fur, which alternates plain sections to parts adorned by various numbers of lines, making it look like the cloth is composed of bands joined together; below it, his garish shirt is replaced by a simple, plain dark one, sporting a partially open high collar, with a light sash circling Hardner's waist. The Captain retains his pants, footwear and cape, but the latter has visible epaulets added to it in correspondence to Hardner's shoulders. During his days in the Blue Guardians, he wore the group's signature high-collared jacket, light in color but possessing dark edges and dark stripes on the outer sleeves, ending in motifs reminiscent of spades, over a dark shirt bearing a light Blue Guardian symbol, and, again, dark pants and footwear. More instances had him wear jackets with similar designs, but lacking the motifs and bearing pockets,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 9-11 and in one of them he was also shown wearing a jacket with a similar design paired with a cape. Hardener.jpeg|Hardner's first outfit Hardner's second Outfit.jpg|Hardner's second outfit Personality During his days in the original Blue Guardians, Hardner used to be a friendly and cheerful individual, a happy-go-lucky air pirate racing across the sky with his comrades and searching for treasures. However, the incident which caused the death of his wife Sophia and the seeming demise of the unborn child she had in her womb took its toll on him: Hardner started travelling alone,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 230, Pages 9-14 and, eventually, changed. As the Captain of the refounded Blue Guardians, Hardner is shown to be ruthless and cruel, brutalizing and insulting subordinates of him as close as Lunar,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 10-11 and being willing to make people suffer to achieve his goals, such as when he forced Belnika to do as he wished by torturing Jerry Bourne,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 212, Pages 16-17 even going on to make sadistic remarks and rejoice at Belnika's despair.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 213, Pages 5-6 He seems to have developed a certain fascination with the concept of decapitation, wielding a sword with a blunt tip, which he refers to as the Executioner's Sword, whose solely purpose, according to him, is to behead opponents,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Pages 11-12 and often remarking about enemies' incoming "executions" at his hands before assaulting them.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 4-5 He also believes that Mother Dark Bring Anasthasis has chosen him to be its owner, and his possession of it makes Hardner think of himself as immortal,Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 11-15 referring to himself as the "warrior that possesses an undying body".Rave Master Manga: Chapter 222, Page 5 Hardner gave several explanations for his wish to summon forth Endless in Makai. At first, he made claim that he wanted the creature to reduce the world to nothingness in order to satisfy his extreme greed, which was so great that Hardner desired things such as the sky and the ocean for himself (such first reason was also hinted during his younger years in the Blue Guardians); he even went on to declare destruction the "ultimate creation", stating that "as everything is lost, everything is gained".Rave Master Manga: Chapter 216, Pages 5-7 Hardner revealed that such goal was to be achieved through the use of the Altar of Birth, which would have first fused him with an user of Etherion (which Hardner saw first in Belnika, and later, after the latter was revealed to lack the power, in Elie), and then would have made him and Endless as one, turning the Captain into a god.Rave Master Manga: Chapter 217, Pages 14-15 References Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Dark Bring users Category:Blue Guardians Category:Manga only characters Category:Needs Help